6. Samuel C. Avery, The Theory of Dimensional Correspondence

The Theory of Dimensional Correspondence

The theory of dimensional correspondence attempts to establish a physical continuity between matter and perceptual consciousness. The central hypothesis is a direct identity between the sensory realms of perception and the dimensions of space and time. Essential to this hypothesis is the identification of mass as a second time dimension and its correspondence with the tactile realm of perception. Evidence to support the hypothesis isdrawn both from the extraordinary phenomena encountered in relativity theory and quantum mechanics and from ordinary, macroscopic experience. Relativistic and quantum enigmas (space and time dilations, the uncertainty principle, etc.) occur when objects are perceived at the farthest extremes of space, time, and mass. This imperfection in the fabric of space‐time is due to “tactile reduction,” or the reducibility of all sensory data in the visual, auditory, and olfactory realms to the tactile realm. Light, for instance, is reducible to a series of a minute, discontinuous tactile sensations. Because sensory realms are indistinguishable at the quantum level, corresponding dimensions become indistinguishable at the same level; one cannot, for instance, isolate the space, time, and mass components of a subatomic particle's momentum or energy. Light is understood to be visual consciousness itself. The constant c, rather than representing a velocity “in ” space‐time, is the relation between space and time that underlies the structure of perceptual consciousness. This explains such phenomena as the “constancy of the speed of light” and c as an upper limit to the velocity of all objects. Then c2 is shown to be the structural relation between the visual and tactile realms of perception. The correspondence theory, though difficult to conceive initially, is more epistemo‐ logically economic than the materalist world view, because it explains more experimental results with fewer assumptions.